The Movima Archive
Movima is a genetically unclassified language spoken in the so-called Moxos region in the savannahs of the Bolivian Amazon area. It is still spoken by more than 1,000 people (1,452 in 1996). Most speakers are over 50 years old and bilingual in Spanish. There are only very few children who still learn the language, while children are usually raised in Spanish only. Today, efforts are being made to implement the language at schools.
The village Santa Ana del Yacuma, the center of the Movima-speaking area with approximately 12,000 inhabitants, was founded approximately in 1708 by the Jesuits. The Jesuits also converted the the Movima people to Catholicism. There does not seem to be an observable trace of Precolumbian culture (traditions, mythology) left. It is therefore quite striking that the Movimas have kept their native language until today.
Since the language is getting lost rapidly, one goal of our data collection is to gather authobiographical information from its last fluent speakers. At the same time, as much as possible other text types were collected, such as dialogues, procedural texts, descriptions etc.
The village „fiesta“ on July 26th is culturally very important. It includes processions, bull fights, and dancing. Many people from the country visit the village, and the Movima language is spoken a lot. Therefore much of the data has to do with the fiesta.
The Movima project contains data collected between 2001 and 2008 in Santa Ana del Yacuma, Bolivia. Between 2001 and 2004, they were collected by Katharina Haude, then Nijmegen University. Since 2006, they were collected by Silke Beuse and Katharina Haude within the DoBeS project at the University of Cologne. Field work was carried out during the dry season between June and October each year.